the aclu is challenging obama's drone policy and is suing the u.s. government over awlaki's death on behalf of his family. >> it is a chilling document. it's, you know, it sets out the government's claimed authority to carry out the targeted killing of american citizens. but the limits are really vague and elastic, and it's very easy to see how they could be manipulated. >> reporter: nbc news analyst michael lighter, a former counterterrorism official who worked on the policy, says it reflects the reality of the murky war against al qaeda. >> the nature of intelligence is such that it really is unreasonable to expect that the u.s. will always have specific evidence about a plot. instead, this allows some flexibility, in that these senior leaders are assumed to consistently have been plotting. >> reporter: the architect of the administration's drone policy is white house counterterrorism adviser john brennan, now the president's nominee to be cia director. >> it's this surgical precision, the ability with laser-like focus to eliminate the cancerous tu